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The Science of What You See

NCJ Number
198688
Journal
College Park Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: Fall 2002 Pages: 22-28
Author(s)
Carol Casey
Editor(s)
Daniel Cusick
Date Published
2002
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article reviews what is necessary knowledge and training in successful crime scene investigations, the basics of knowing what you see, knowing what you know, and how you know it through experts and professors from the University of Maryland in the fields of forensic criminalistics and forensic anthropology.
Abstract
Law enforcement investigators or crime scene investigators can lose cases for failing to use the most elementary crime scene protocols. The failure of the police to adhere to basic protocols at the beginning of investigations can make the difference between a conviction and a not-guilty verdict. At the University of Maryland, Tom Maurello teaches criminalistics or crime scene investigation. Students learn how to conduct strategic investigations and know what they see. However, when a body is not found for weeks or months, a forensic anthropologist would be brought in, like Marilyn London. Marilyn London is a professor of biological anthropology at the University of Maryland. In this discipline, the intersection of culture and a person’s individual life is written in their bones. It is a field of making discoveries about the causes of death. It is imperative that law enforcement know what it sees and if it doesn't know, documents it. Anthropology allows one to blend knowledge of human cultures with human anatomy to bring novel points of view to investigations.